I know that in principle Indesign is cross platform. However, before investing in it, I would appreciate hearing from people who have had experience moving files back and forth between Mac and PC for editing. Is it truly seamless?
Thanks
Grady McGonagill...

Windows/Mac compatibility?

I know that in principle Indesign is cross platform. However, before investing in it, I would appreciate hearing from people who have had experience moving files back and forth between Mac and PC for editing. Is it truly seamless?

Re: Windows/Mac compatibility?

It is truly seamless...provided that you're using the same fonts on both platform! For that I recommend OpenType fonts since they also work seamlessly across platform.

Although I work mostly on a Mac, I'm currently working on a project receiving InDesign files created in Windows. I can load their OpenType and Windows TrueType fonts and relink their graphics, and it works flawlessly.

Re: Windows/Mac compatibility?

May I piggy-back on this? I'm currently on a Mac, using PageMaker 6.5. The company is moving us to Windows machines, and to InDesign CS for PageMaker. Does anyone have experience with this sort of shift? As long as I archive CDs to Windows-readable, our old files should be editable, yes?

Re: Windows/Mac compatibility?

archive CDs to Windows-readable

Make sure that you save the files with Windows filename extensions and in Joliet format.

[sad anecdote...]A design agency that worked for us was going out of business and they were asked to supply all of our project files on CD before they shuttered. They thought that we could only read PC-format so they created PC-format CDs using some evil CD authoring application. All of the filenames were cut to 8.3 length and I have spent the past 3 years trying to sort through them. What is '!untitle.d$$'?

Better yet, keep all of your work on Mac format CDs and invest in MacOpener for the PC.

Re: Windows/Mac compatibility?

We've been archiving our old customer-supplied Mac files to DVD using a G5, and one recurring theme we see is the use of "/" im Mac file names. I'm guessing that nomenclature will be one seam in the Mac/PC conversion tapestry.

[Here's a sad slightly OT anecdote] We produce a trade magazine and probably get 10 files a month named [ourmagazine].pdf. What are these agencies thinking?

Re: Windows/Mac compatibility?

Probably the same as the authors of the countless versions of Press
Release.doc that I have received. Whatever happened to flair, ingenuity and
common sense in file naming?

Even further OT. If, like me, you receive emails with a variety of doent
files and images, all with incomprehensible file names like X2345.jpg, and
you want to store them in associated groups, there is a neat freeware
program called rjhExtensions ([url]www.rjhsoftware.com[/url]) that extends the Windows
Explorer right click menu to enable you to select a group of files and
rename them in one action. This way you can add a meaningful first word to
all file names so they appear together in a folder list.

Re: Windows/Mac compatibility?

Erica,

We made the same move 2.5 years ago (albiet to ID 1.5 then 2.0). We had a
few problems, mainly with slashes in file names, and no filename extensions
on our linked art. We used NameCleaner to fix the filenames in batches.
[url]http://www.sigsoftware.com/namecleaner/[/url] The UI is dreadful, but it's far
faster than doing it manually. (BTW, in Win 2k these slashes show up in
WinExplorer with a little dot under the filename. Our Win Server can handle
the filenames, sort of, but the Win applications cannot.)

Otherwise, keep a Mac or two around. You never know when some project won't
convert and you'll have to go back and use that Mac. We've had to do that a
few more times than we expected.

Re: Windows/Mac compatibility?

Those agencies weren't any dumber than a Mac user who puts a / in a file
name or leaves off extensions. They also aren't any dumber than a
Windows user who doesn't make sure that file name characters are okay on
a Mac.

The fact is that there's just too many people out there that simply
don't think outside of their own desks.

Re: Windows/Mac compatibility?

Re: Windows/Mac compatibility?

I've enjoyed this post. I wish some industrious (and knowledgeable) soul would jot down the top (pick a number) issues that you guys have touched on and relay how it should be done. I think it would be much appreciated and obviously a big help. Thanks.